Facilities

Entrance Lobby and Hall Foyer

A beautiful glazed and carpeted entrance lobby leads into a welcoming foyer. The Main Hall is to the left, in front of you is the Dennis Gunn Room, a spacious coat hanging cupboard is available and further down the passage, the Kitchen and the toilet facilities.

The Main Hall

A spacious 11.2m x 15m hall which has been tastefully finished with oak flooring on top of under floor heating, wooden arches to the ceiling, overhead and wall mounted lighting, stunning views of the local countryside through glazed doors facing south, access hatch to the kitchen with roller door. Staging is available for any type of function, together with tables, rectangle or round, and comfortable padded chairs. The Main Hall can accommodate 100+ for seated meal, 200 seated audience and 250 standing buffet style function.

The Dennis Gunn Room

This room leads from the foyer or can be accessed through sliding doors from the Main Hall. It has been named the Dennis Gunn Room after Mr Dennis Gunn, a local man, who was Chairman of the Parish Hall Committee for some 30 years and who dedicated a great deal of his own time to the planning and fundraising for this new hall. Unfortunately Mr Gunn has not lived to see the finished hall but his wife, Frances, has played an excellent role as secretary of the hall committee and has been actively involved in numerous fundraising events.

The Dennis Gunn Room (4.2 x 6.7 m) can be used as a small meeting room or can be used in conjunction with the Main Hall as a bar area or "quiet space". It has an open hatch to the Kitchen and oak floor finish.

The Kitchen

The Kitchen (6.7m x 5.5m) has been planned to provide a practical working area to meet the needs of all users and has a fresh and open feel to it. The Kitchen comprises of a spacious central island with a stainless steel top, large stainless steel double sink, separate hand-washing facilities, automatic dishwasher, a large 6 hob catering oven, microwave, warming cupboard and auto-fill water boiler, fridge and plenty of worktop areas with cupboards underneath and wall mounted. There is ample crockery and cutlery with a range of kitchen essentials for any type of function. The Kitchen has a door to the Main Hall and a separate access via a corridor to the rear of the hall. There is a large lockable storeroom. It has two serving hatches, one to the Main Hall and one to the Dennis Gunn Room.

Toilet Facilities

Facilities include a disabled toilet leading off from the Hall Foyer together with ladies and gents. Baby changing facilities are also available.

Committees/Clubs

Parish Hall Committee Trustees and the organisations they represent:

Chairman:Shirley Partridge – Community Shop & Post Office

Secretary:Lindsey Turner – Co-opted

Booking Secretary:Kirstein Morris

Treasurer:Kate Bevan – Garden Club & Community Club

Catherine Jennings – Bishops Nympton Primary School

Tina Ley – Bish Nym Players

Simon Tout – Cricket Club & Community Club

Nick Shapcott – Bishops Nympton Parish Council & Bowling Club

David Verney – Methodist Chapel

Rhona Molyneux – Co-opted

Ron Jones – Lunch Club & Parish Church

Roger Beels – Dance Club

If you are interested in joining any of the above organisations/clubs or would like more information please contact the local representative.

DANCING:

Bishops Nympton Dance Club meet every Tuesday evening to learn and practice Ballroom, Latin, and Sequence dancing in a social and fun atmosphere. Led by husband and wife team, Geoff and Lynne Symons, all dancing abilities are catered for, including beginners. Lynne is a qualified dance teacher with the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (ISTD). For more details and events etc. visit:
www.happy-feet-dance.co.uk.

Telephone: 01769 550226

The Story of our Community Shop…so far:

In days gone by our village used to support several shops and service providers; in fact the village and its surrounding area were self sufficient like many other large Parishes in Devon. Times moved on until we were only left with the Village Shop and Post Office. This was threatened with closure in 2008. This threat resulted in the launch of a vigorous campaign to save our Shop and Post Office - we succeeded and negotiated a Partner-ship service with the Post office and a two year lease on the original premises. Meanwhile permission was granted to build a new Parish Hall which would incorporate a Community Shop. Our shop was officially opened on the 2nd July 2011 just one month after the new Parish Hall was opened. The success of the Shop depends upon its volunteer unpaid workers organized by dedicated members of the Shop Committee. It also depends upon the population of the Parish supporting it through their use on a regular basis. Remember that during the last two severe winters many of us were pleased we had our Shop to serve our needs.

Become part of this story – use the shop as much as possible - it’s a not - for - profit - Community Enter-prise. Help it to flourish, grow and develop so that it can continue to serve our Community.

Partnership Post Office Services:

Cash withdrawals

Mobile Phone top-ups

Pensions and benefit payments

National & International letter & parcel
post

Special deliveries

Signed for Delivery

Foreign currency

Electricity Key credits

Rent & Council Tax payments

Utility Bill payments

And of course: STAMPS

We aim to support local enterprises whenever
we can for example: Waterhouse Fayre-Award
winning homemade preserves from Devon;
Verney’s Molton ice creams from our own village;
locally sourced cheeses, sausages, ham. etc

Don't forget:

LOOK for our SPECIAL
OFFERS on wines, beers and
ales and other items.

WHY not come in and enjoy
a cup of tea or coffee and have
a browse ?

Orders can be taken over the
phone and goods can be delivered
by Special Arrangement.

History

Bishops Nympton's new Parish Hall has been built to replace the old hall, originally built in 1934 and more recently sold to the Primary School. The hall was showing signs of ageing and had become too small for the needs of the Parish.

Fundraising has been ongoing for some 20 years and after several unsuccessful attempts to acquire capital funding for a new hall, it fell to the generosity of two Parish residents to enable us to cut the first turf in July 2010 when building began in earnest.

The Parish Hall committee are delighted to announce that the long awaited new Parish Hall has now been built and is ready to provide Bishops Nympton and the surrounding area a superb opportunity for the whole community to benefit from this stunning building. The Parish Hall is unique in that it comprises the Bishops Nympton Community Shop and Post Office together with a private consulting room, Main Hall, the Dennis Gunn Room, Kitchen, toilet facilities and a Community Office. Ample parking is available and a lawned terrace is available for outdoor use. The Hall has been built in a mixture of stone and wood and tastefully finished to a very high standard. To fit in with the locality the car parking has been located to the lower and upper side of the hall enabling unrestricted views over the beautiful rolling North Devon hills. This has been enlarged to accommodate 100 vehicles.

The Hall is situated to the north of the pretty village of Bishops Nympton, some 2.5 miles from the market town of South Molton, the "Gateway to Exmoor". Access from the A361 main trunk road into North Devon from the M5 motorway is straight forward and a short five minute drive to the hall from Bish Mill.

Bishops Nympton village boasts a wealth of facilities which include a Primary School for 4-11 year olds, "Little Owls" Pre-School, a Parish Church, Methodist Chapel, a newly opened Children's playground area and various local clubs (details available here).

We are all very proud of our new hall and welcome you to our website. It is currently in its infancy and if you would like to see any further details added please contact us via email from the Contact page.

Our Hall has been planned for a considerable period and during this time there have been many obstacles to overcome. Overcome is how we feel as a committee now that we can present our beautiful new hall to you.

Initial funding for this project was made possible by the generosity of local resident, Bill Dart, together with proceeds from the sale of the old hall to the village primary school. Further funding was awarded and the project was given the green light from NDDC Planning and Highways.

The Parish Hall build commenced with a turf cutting ceremony on the 2nd July 2010 by Mrs Frances Gunn, wife of the late Dennis Gunn who was a major instigator of this project, as well as serving as Parish Hall Chairman for some 30 years. A local farmer and parish councillor, Dennis was well-known throughout the locality and as a small thank you to his endeavours the current committee felt it right to name a room in the hall after him.

Once the turf was cut, local builders, A & G Setherton, commenced works at the top of the village on ground kindly donated by local farmer, Arthur Bawden, to build Bishops Nympton a new parish hall.

The timber frame and roofing was achieved during a mild, dry autumn but the groundworks came to a halt during heavy November snow. By February 2011 the building had windows and external doors and internal works then commenced. The Photovoltaic panels were installed in March and were up and running in April. Electricity from these panels will be sold to the National Grid, creating a source of income for the hall. During the rest of April and May works continued and the opening day of 3rd June soon arrived.

We have received the majority of funding for this project from a wide range of sources which include:-

Firstly we would like to thank Bill Dart, the Bawden family and Eric Ley for getting this project off the ground, without their support we would not have achieved this hall.

Secondly to thank Alan and Gary Setherton, our builders, who have transformed a few drawings into the magnificent Parish Hall that we see today. Without their hard work and dedication this feat would not have been possible.

A huge thank you to the Parish Hall Committee Members, past and present, who have worked tirelessly to organise and host the numerous fundraising events over the last 20 years. Some of which included clay shoots, themed dinners, bingos, sponsored walks, abseiling, buy a brick, 200 Club and travel outings, other fund days and for their endless enthusiasm and hard work during this project.

Thank you also to the local and wider community for supporting the fundraising for the Parish Hall and we look forward to welcoming them to the many future events we will be holding in our new hall.